Photovoltaic study of dye sensitized solar cells based on TiO2, ZnO:Al3+ nanoparticles

H. E. Sánchez Godoy; R. A. Rodríguez-Rojas; J. Castañeda-Contreras; V. F. Marañón-Ruiz; H. Pérez-Ladrón de Guevara; T. López-Luke; De la Rosa-Cruz

doi:10.1117/12.2188677

9 October 2015 Photovoltaic study of dye sensitized solar cells based on TiO₂, ZnO:Al³⁺ nanoparticles

H. E. Sánchez Godoy, R. A. Rodríguez-Rojas, J. Castañeda-Contreras, V. F. Marañón-Ruiz, H. Pérez-Ladrón de Guevara, T. López-Luke, De la Rosa-Cruz

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9545, Nanophotonic Materials XII; 95450Z (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2188677
Event: SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

A technique to fabricate dye (rhodamine B) sensitized solar cells based on Titanium Oxide (TiO₂) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles are reported. The TiO₂ was synthesized using the sol-gel method and the ZnO was synthesized by hydrolysis method to obtain nanoparticles of ~ 5 nm and 150 nm respectively. ZnO was doped with Al³⁺ in order to enhance the photovoltaic efficiency to promote the electrons mobility. The photovoltaic conversion characterization of films of TiO₂, ZnO and ZnO:Al³⁺ nanoparticles is also reported. The generated photocurrent was measured by two methods; one of those uses a three electrode electrochemical cell and the other use an electronic array where the cells were exposed to UV lamp and the sun light. The role of the TiO₂, ZnO and Al³⁺ doped ZnO nanoparticles is discussed to obtain a better efficiency in the generation of photocurrent (PC). The results exhibited by the electrochemical cell method, efficiencies of 0.55 (PC=187 μA/cm²) and 0.22 (PC=149 μA/cm²) for TiO₂ and undoped ZnO respectively. However, when ZnO is doped with Al³⁺ at the higher concentration the efficiency was 0.44. While using the electronic array the results exhibited efficiencies of 0.31 (PC=45 μA/cm²) and 0.09 (PC=16 μA/cm²) for TiO₂and undoped ZnO respectively. However, when ZnO is doped with Al³⁺ at the higher concentration the efficiency was 0.44 and 0.48 for electrochemical cell and electronic array respectively. This shows that Al³⁺ enhances the photogenerated charge carriers increasing the mobility of electrons.

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H. E. Sánchez Godoy, R. A. Rodríguez-Rojas, J. Castañeda-Contreras, V. F. Marañón-Ruiz, H. Pérez-Ladrón de Guevara, T. López-Luke, and De la Rosa-Cruz "Photovoltaic study of dye sensitized solar cells based on TiO₂, ZnO:Al³⁺ nanoparticles", Proc. SPIE 9545, Nanophotonic Materials XII, 95450Z (9 October 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2188677

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